The DW Yaoi Matchmakers
by KuraiAmore
Summary: Three girls are sent into the world of Dynasty Warriors through their TV. Problem? Two of them are yaoi-lovers! Yeah - sorry for the bad summary. Written for any yaoi fan! :D KS
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **Hi! Yeah, I know that this type of "three-girls-are-sent-into-time-into-the-Han-Dynasty-era" story has already been done, but this is my version of it, and it's going to be really different to the normal ones, especially in the sense that these girls are going to be the catalyst for certain romances to start, not the romances themselves (just take a look at the title).

Just as a note, Seraine's name is pronounced as "say-rain"; Lina's and Melanie's is easy enough to say. Cindy-Pindy, thanks for the "Lun Xu" idea, since you won't shut up about him.

I'm Kurai-Shuwazi and I hope you enjoy the first chapter of "The DW Yaoi Matchmakers".

--  
**Chapter 1**  
--

The square rectangle flashed with beams of purple and green, emitting harsh sounds and cries of the fallen.

'**Zhuge Liang's unit has withdrawn! Unit morale is rising!**'

The words blared in the screen, a blue strip cutting across the battlefield.

"Run away now, Seraine!" Lina screamed, rapidly pressing the 'square' button on her PlayStation Dual Shock 2 controller. Her character, Xiahou Dun, swung his scimitar around him, killing off everyone in range in the TV. "You're in red blood!"

"Call me Lun Xu, damn it!" Seraine screamed back, as her favourite character, Lu Xun, ran away from the hordes of enemies rushing at the orange-dressed boy. On the horizontally cut screen, the two characters met up with each other, both being chased by a large crowd of green-clad soldiers.

"AHH!" Seraine shouted, turning Lu Xun away from the army only to meet more of the army head-on.

"Run, you retard!"

"Don't call Lu Xun a retard!"

"I called you a retard, not Lu Xun!"

"Would you two shut up?" Melanie asked, exasperated. Lina pressed the 'pause' button on the game.

"Just because you're not a D.W fan, doesn't mean we aren't!" Lina replied, whipping around in the computer chair.

"Yeah, Melanie! We like Dynasty Warriors!"

'Oh God,' Melanie thought. 'I should have known better than to say that.'

Luckily for her, however, the two younger girls had already gone back to fleeing the large army building up on the TV screen.

"Seraine, look out!"

The warning had come too late. The bold words '**Lu Xun slain**' jumped up, causing the game to end as Lu Xun lay dead and Xiahou Dun thrust his weapon into the ground in defeat.

'**Game Over.**'

Lina turned and looked at Seraine accusingly.

"It wasn't my fault!" Seraine replied defensively. "I didn't see the arrows!"

"You were standing in front of the fricking archers!" Lina retorted.

"So? You're always dying in 'The Battle of Cheng Du'!"

"But that's only because Ma Chao keeps poking me! I never get to poke back at him!"

Melanie groaned, watching as the two bickered back and forth.

"Well, who cares?" Seraine said finally. "Let's just play again."

"Fine."

"Which stage do you want to play?"

"What did we just play?"

"I think 'The Battle of Jie Ting – Wei Army'."

"Ok then. Just pick anything random."

Lina and Seraine watched as words flickered back and forth on the screen, as Melanie stared at the ceiling. It was 1:04 a.m., but because Melanie's parents were on a working holiday, the three cousins had the house to themselves. Melanie had no idea how her two younger cousins had managed to persuade their parents to let them stay over for an entire week, but they did, and it was currently their second night alone. The girls had been playing Dynasty Warriors 5 for five hours and eleven minutes straight.

"Stop!"

'**The Battle of Wu Zhang Plains**' flashed.

"Oohs – I wanna be Cao Pi," Lina said, giddy despite the late hour. "You be Sima Yi. We need to level up his stats so that we can use his laser-beam musou thing-y."

"Why do I have to be Sima Yi?" Seraine pouted.

"Cause."

Seraine didn't bother questioning the lack of answer.

"So, Wei side again?"

"Yeah," replied Lina. "Hey, what do you think would happen if we put Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi together in a closet?"

'No, please, no,' Melanie silently begged. 'No yaoi talk.'

"Well, who do you think would be seme?"

Lina looked thoughtful. "Zhuge Liang, maybe?"

"You think?" Seraine asked back.

"Maybe," Lina answered. "But still, Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi won't exactly make the best couple." She paused as she flicked between Cao Pi's blue and silver outfits, finally choosing the latter. "Zhuge Liang would go well with, like, Liu Bei or something, Jiang Wei perhaps. Hell, even Zhou Yu would make a better pairing for Zhuge Liang."

"Zhou Yu?"

"Why not?"

"I thought that you said that Zhou Yu goes best with Sun Ce."

"I did," Lina replied indignantly. "And I shall always stand by that, because Zhou Yu and Sun Ce are THE best couple ever."

Seraine pouted, and was going to form some sort of retort when she was suddenly interrupted by Melanie.

"No! No more yaoi talk!" Melanie said to the girls. "I've had enough! You're always going on about him with him and him with him; doesn't it get annoying?"

Seraine and Lina shook their heads dumbly.

Melanie sighed, and collapsed back onto the couch, defeated.

The gaming resumed.

Twenty minuted passed and the battle was almost over. All that was left to do was kill Zhuge Liang, as Jiang Wei had been beaten beforehand. Cao Pi ran ahead, with Sima Yi following close behind. The 'strategy' that the girls used to level up characters was a fairly easy one to follow. Level up Zhao Yun, since he was the strongest of the starting characters, until he was maxed out and then play in two-player mode, in which Zhao Yun would reduce the life bar of the enemy by ninety-nine point nine percent, and then let the weaker character deal the final blow. They would continue on in that way until the weaker character was maxed out and so on.

Currently, Cao Pi was stabbing at Zhuge Liang's back, until he got hit in the side by one of the elite soldiers. Sima Yi was standing in a corner and building up his musou. The Musou Bar became full and Sima Yi charged. Seraine pushed the 'circle' button, just as Zhuge Liang let off his own musou attack.

"Press 'square', press 'square', press 'square', press 'square'!" Lina screamed frantically, watching the deadlock between Sima Yi and Zhuge Liang while pushing her own 'square' button, sixty-five percent of the time hitting nothing but air.

"I'm pressing 'square'!" Seraine screamed back.

Seraine's thumb was a blur, rapidly hitting down on the controller.

Melanie groaned. Her cousins just didn't know when to stop playing.

Suddenly, there was a loud crashing sound and the PlayStation-playing girls screamed. Melanie had never been more grateful that her house was sound-proof.

The T.V shone with a white light, glowing like the sun's rays. Seconds later, the sound of a shattering mirror echoed loudly and the glass-like screen of the television rained onto the floor, broken into pieces. All was then silent, until Melanie had taken in what had happened.

"What the hell?!" she screamed, jumping up. "What the hell happened? Oh My God, the TV's broken! Damn it; my parents are going to kill me!"

"Well, we don't know what happened!" Seraine said, immediately defending herself. It was true though; she didn't know what had happened. One minute, she was desperately trying to kill Zhuge Liang using Sima Yi and the next, the TV decided to try and make her go blind.

"You must have done something!" Melanie countered. "You've been playing for hours straight; the TV must have overloaded or something."

"But if the TV overloaded, then the power would turn off; it wouldn't suddenly break like that," Lina said, calmly, as though it was ordinary for TV screens to suddenly act up. Lina was probably the most persuasive out of the three, but only when the situation called for it. She was probably the most fearless too, but that said, she was also the weirdest.

Lina walked over to the broken screen, reaching out with her hand to touch.

"Ouch!"

"What happened now?" Melanie asked, sounding more and more anxious as the minutes passed.

"I burnt myself," replied Lina, holding up the burnt finger, and laughing.

Both Seraine and Melanie stared at Lina, who was braving the risk of being burnt once again. She grasped the fragment and was surprised to find it cold, holding it up to the light and examining it.

"Well, I don't know what happened," she concluded.

Melanie slapped her hand to her forehead and groaned.

"Hey," came Seraine's uneasy voice.

"What now?"

"Where are the wires?"

"What?"

Seraine was standing off the side of the TV, peering inside the box.

"Aren't there supposed to be wires inside TVs?" she asked. "This one doesn't have any."

True enough, the screen was still black, but unnaturally; it looked like it had a thin coating of mist surrounding it.

"Dare you to touch it, Seraine," Lina said, tauntingly.

"No!" Melanie cried out. "No one is touching the screen! I'll call the repairman tomorrow and then we'll forget this ever happened!"

"But I wanna touch it!" Lina whined, speaking in slight slang, like a child.

"You touch it then," Melanie said, finally losing it. "But don't blame me if you get an electric shock and die!"

"Okay!"

Lina skipped over happily to the TV set, and very dramatically, made the gun symbol using her index finger and thumb.

"If you kill me," she said seriously, to the TV, while Melanie gaped at her and Seraine looked mildly interested. "Then I swear I will come back and haunt you forever!"

She then stabbed her gun-hand at the TV, gasping as the fingers and wrist became swallowed by the blackness. She jerked her hand back immediately, and stared at the limb in amazement and then at the TV in wonder. Cautiously, she moved even closer, gripping the sides of the TV and plunged her head wholly inside the box.

She heard the scream of two girls, but cared not, as the next scene she saw befell her eyes. Another scream was heard, but only to her ears, and far manlier.

She grinned, pulled her head back and saw that she was once again in the living-room-turned-bedroom of Melanie's house.

"What do you think would happen if we put Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi together in a closet?" she said, repeating her question and smiling madly.

"I don't know," Seraine answered, bewildered when Lina's head had disappeared fully into the TV.

"Want to find out?"

Seraine immediately left the thought at Lina's words. "Hell yeah! But how?"

Lina's smile grew. "Come with me?"

Lina held out a hand and used the other to indicate to the TV. Seraine hesitated slightly, but took hold of the hand nonetheless.

"Coming Melanie?" Lina called.

"Where?" Melanie asked, cynically.

"In there," Lina said, pointing at the TV.

"Quit joking."

"I'm not."

"Sure, Lina, sure you're not."

Lina shrugged. "Well, come if you're bored."

With the parting words, Lina pulled Seraine to the still misty-black TV and pushed her in before jumping in herself, not once letting go of her hand.

Melanie watched as the two girls disappeared. The two girls she was responsible for, in the eyes of the adults.

She groaned and walked over to the wall, bashing her head down in an attempt to clear her mind.

'I've got to be dreaming,' she thought. 'This is what happens in stories. Damn it, I've been reading too many of Seraine's fan fictions.'

Melanie stopped giving herself a concussion and turned to look at the TV, sitting there ever so innocently.

'This had so better be a dream,' she thought, walking over to the box. 'I'll kill someone if it isn't.'

She took a deep breath and allowed herself to drop into the TV, following her cousins into whatever hell, mischief and chaos they found themselves in.

--  
**Chapter 1: End  
**--

**A/N: **Well, yeah, my first chapters are never good, but PLEASE REVIEW! and hopefully, I'll see you at the next chapter.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Ahh - I'm so, so, so, so, VERY SORRY for not updating in such a long time!! I've been trying to deal with a lot of problems, most of which aren't mine (some of which are), and it wasn't until the holidays started that I was able to even look back at this fic! And now I only have one week of holidays left! And I still have homework!! Oh, woe is me.  
Well enough of that - **THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO REVIEWED THE LAST CHAPTER!!** The last chapter had so much of a better response than I expected, and I'm really grateful to everyone who took their time out to review. -is still doing a giddy dance over reviews- I'm glad that you enjoyed it, but I should warn you, I don't have much practice with writing comedies, so I hope that you don't get bored with this story _too_ quickly.  
As a side note, my usual beta, +3r!N, who just happens to be my best friend, is currently out-of-commission due to the holidays. Our email connection doesn't work, so I can't send her the chapter, but possibly, I could get my cousin, Anna, to beta for me instead. I'll see where my pleading can go.

Well, whatever - onto the next chapter!!

--  
**Chapter 2  
**--

Melanie blinked, once, twice, and then slapped herself.

Okay, so she wasn't dreaming. Now, she was ready to go and kill someone. And she knew exactly who. The person in mind, however, was nowhere to be found and she found herself searching for any sign of her reckless and impulsive cousins.

Wherever the hell she was, it sure looked familiar.

The place she was in had soft hills that rolled slowly and lazily, cocooning around her yet paths were so clearly distinguished. The sky was as dark as she had ever seen it and the ground she was on looked worse for wear, treaded over by countless feet.

"Melanie!"

She turned around quickly, relief flooding into her as the forms of Seraine and Lina came into view. The girls ran up to her quickly, each grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the direction they had just come from. They were both talking furiously fast, and she could barely make out a single word.

"Wait!" she cried, pulling her hands from their grasp and stopping in her tracks. "Just slow down. Okay, first thing's first. Where are we?"

Seraine and Lina stared at her in disbelief.

"You mean you don't know?" Lina asked.

"How do you expect me to know?" Melanie frowned. "You go around jumping into TV screens, expecting me to follow you and know where the hell it is I am?"

"But how can you not know?" Seraine cried. She threw her arms over her head, indicating to the scenery in front and behind them. "We've seen this place so many times before!"

"What are you talking about?" Melanie asked, incredulously.

Lina sighed and continued to drag her through along the path, Seraine quickly picking up the pace and adding her own weight.

"Just come with us," Lina said, excitedly. "You'll see what we mean."

"Can't you just tell me now?"

She didn't receive an answer, only the nagging pull on her arms. As she was dragged, sounds began flittering in her ears. There were screams; battle-cries. With every step that her cousins brought her, the shouting grew louder, and she suddenly felt is if she had heard it all before, except something was missing. Just then, Lina began humming and it struck her.

"Dynasty Warriors!" she exclaimed, her eyes widening.

"Yeah, now you realise," Lina said, rolling her eyes at the slowness of Melanie. "Stay quiet; we're getting closer to the fight."

"What fight?" Melanie questioned, horrified that she and her cousins had suddenly been transported into Seraine's and Lina's favourite game.

"The Battle of Wu Zhang Plains," Seraine whispered back. "Look, you can see some of the strongholds from here."

Seraine was right. The sounds of the battle was almost deafening now, pumping through her ears in rocking motion. The wooden and stone structures of the strongholds stood firm, surrounded by hundreds of blue or green dressed soldiers. The opposing colours clashed against each other, the sound of metal upon metal ringing in the girls' ears.

The cousins took shelter behind a jutting corner of a hill, watching as the uniformed men ran back and forth, cries tearing from their throats.

Suddenly, Lina gave a giggle and pointed towards the left of the battlefield.

"Look!"

Melanie and Seraine turned their heads. Seraine gave a surprised cry and then gasped and covered her mouth with both her hands. Melanie stared blankly.

"What am I supposed to be looking at?" she asked, looking confusedly between her cousins and the field.

"Right there!" Lina said, pointing. "No wait, there! There! What, he disa- No, he's right over there! God damn it, get off your horse and stand still already!"

Melanie had, by now, figured out that she was supposed to be looking at a person, but there were so many people here. Who was it that she was meant to be looking at?

"Ooh, ouch!" Seraine and Lina said in unison, both cringing a little.

"What happened?" Melanie asked. There were many casualties occurring as well. Just what were her cousins looking at?

"That looked bad," Lina commented. "I hope he didn't hurt himself too much."

"Yeah," Seraine said. "But look! He's already up and fighting again!"

"Okay, please tell me," Melanie began, sighing and determined to see what had caught her cousins' interest. "Who are you two looking at?"

There was no response. Seraine's and Lina's eyes were darting through the battlefield like crazy disco lights, glued to whatever it was they were watching. Melanie, feeling rejected, turned her back on the battlefield, crossing her arms over her chest. She ignored all of her cousins' little gasps and exclamations at the battle, but couldn't ignore the sudden push they gave her. The shove sent her head first into the ground as they both fell on her like when they used to play stack-up.

"What the hell did you do that for?" she asked, after coughing away specks of dirt and dust from her mouth. She moved to stand and pushed them both off her back, and was going to round on them when something caught her eyes.

In front of her was a spear; a sharp, beautiful, and very pointy spear. She turned around and was going to say 'thank you' to her cousins for seemingly getting her out of the way, but instead…

"What the hell was that?"

Instead of answering Melanie's question, Seraine gave out a cry.

"That dude's about to stab him! Quick, we've got to help!"

Through the many running feet and moving limbs, Melanie was finally able to decipher what her cousins were looking at, and currently, it wasn't a pretty sight. A young-looking man clad in green and silver had his back pressed against the ground. His hands were gripping the wooden pole of a spear that was being lowered towards him, desperately straining to lift it away. The second man on top of him, the one pressing the spear down, however, refused to budge away.

"Here, Melanie!"

Lina had picked up the spear that was lying on the ground, forcefully throwing it at Melanie, who fumbled and dropped it. Melanie leant forward and picked it up carefully.

"What do you expect me to do with this?" she asked, wary of her cousin's answer.

"What do you think?" Lina snapped back. "We're in the middle of a war!"

"Yeah – one that happened, like, two thousand years ago!"

"One thousand and eight hundred years ago!"

"Whatever! This is a game!"

"Who cares? He still needs us to help him!"

"Who's 'he' anyway?"

"Would you two shut up and help him already?" Seraine interrupted, flailing her arms out towards the two men who were still caught in a deadlock.

"Fine!" Melanie held out the spear to Lina. It was heavy and she didn't want to hold it anymore, no matter how beautiful it looked. "You take it."

Lina looked horrified. "I can't! Melanie, you're the best at sports, and you came in fourth place in the school sports carnival for javelin! Just throw it at the dude!"

Melanie looked back at the two men on the ground. It was absolutely a miracle that the man in green had been able to sustain for so long without help, and she wasn't sure if he would be getting it anytime soon. Not with the rate that the arguments were going on, anyway.

"And, enlighten me please, which 'dude' am I meant to be throwing this at?" She jingled the spear slightly for emphasis while nodding at the two men. Her logic told her that it was only a game – what did it matter what one person lived or died anyway? Wouldn't they just be resurrected for the next battle?

"The one in blue," Lina said, speaking like a teacher would to an incompetent child.

"What happens if I miss and hit someone else instead?"

"Then we run like hell."

Melanie sighed. Seraine was still watching the battle with intensity, completely ignoring everything else that was going on around her.

'Well, here goes nothing,' Melanie thought, as she lined herself up as best as she could from behind the boulder.

She could see the two men clearly in sight, but there were too many bodies swaying back and forth in front of her for her to be able to get a clear shot. The man in green now had the blade of the spear lined up perfectly with his neck, and it was only through the strength of his hands that he managed to keep himself from getting killed.

"Come on, Melanie!"

Seraine and Lina were urging on, completely oblivious to how heavy the spear actually felt. The weight was so different from the light material Melanie was used to when using the school javelins.

Finally, she saw an opening and just a bit more than half-heartedly threw the spear with all her might. What happened next was a bit like a domino effect.

The spear had landed nowhere near the place it was intended to go, but instead fell and dropped onto a green-uniformed soldier's leg. The spear-embedded soldier gave out a shriek of pain and threw away his weapon to clutch at the wound. The sword that was once in the soldier's hands flew out randomly and coincidentally struck down a horse. The rider and horse crashed straight into a wooden tower, which toppled over.  
Apparently, the tower had been housing archers, as the next moment, about three arrows were released into the air. One of these arrows, luckily enough, struck the blue man in the back, which gave enough time and momentum for the green man to completely push the other man off.

"All right!" Lina and Seraine cheered. "Awesome shot, Melanie!"

Melanie couldn't help but roll her eyes; what had happened had been very lucky, even though she had probably wounded about five other people along the way. Her eyes travelled over to the man who had the spear strike him the leg. It had appeared to have gone in quite deep, though only with the first point.  
Melanie could clearly remember the details of the spear; the handle had been delicately carved from strong wood, and the blade was of was an unusual design. The tip was triangular like any other, sloping down like a cylinder to be attached to the pole of the spear. Branching off from the cylinder were two more points, like two knifes attached. It truly was a deadly weapon.

Melanie lowered her head slightly in shame and apologized to the man she had speared in her head, hoping that he wouldn't die of blood loss.

Just then, the man in green leapt over to the injured soldier and unceremoniously yanked the spear out of the soldier's leg. The green-clad man then turned around and became lost in the fighting crowd.

"We've got to follow him!" Seraine shouted, jumping up from where she was crouched.

"What?" Melanie still had her eyes fixed on the wounded soldier, who was now hobbling away with the help of a comrade, dressed also in green.

"Let's go!" Lina jumped energetically at her own words and looked expectantly at Seraine and Melanie.

Melanie stifled a groan. "And just how are we supposed to get through all that?" She indicated to the raging battlefield, thundering with the sounds of war.

Lina thought for a moment. "It'd be like playing dodgeball, I guess," she said quickly. "Just stay out of the way of everyone and we should be fine. Ready then?"

"No," was Melanie's automatic response, though she felt her body tense with anticipation anyway.

The three girls lined themselves up side-by-side and prepared for a dash to follow the green man, even though he had been long lost in the sea of soldiers and horses.

"We'll go together on my count," came Seraine's voice. Melanie couldn't believe she was actually doing this; running away with her cousins to follow some random man in a game – just what kind of a reality was this?

"Three."

Melanie adjusted herself for best leverage, watching as Seraine and Lina did the same.

"Two."

She could feel the adrenaline pumping through her, and that very aura seemed to be emitting from the other two.

"One – let's go!"

She sped off, with Lina a fraction of a second in front of her and Seraine a fraction of a second behind.

Lina ended up leading the way through the mass of movement that flurried around them. Her eyesight was keenest, and it wasn't long until she noticed the green man once again, reseated on the top of a horse.

"Check it – he's over there!"

Lina quickly leapt over what appeared to be a fallen log and halted in her tracks. Seraine and Melanie quickly caught up, all out of breath and unbelieving that they had somehow had it through the battlefield without getting a single scratch.

"Perfect!" Melanie screamed sarcastically, trying to make herself heard over the chaos. "What are we meant to do now? You've rushed us straight into this battle with no plan in mind!"

Her effort went little to effect, as Lina sent her a confused look and said something that neither of the other two could hear. All three of them did hear, however, the shrill neigh of a horse, one that was no more than a few feet in front of them.

The man in green was trying to control his horse, pulling harshly on the reins, but the panicked animal remained frightened of the multiple spears that were jerked in its direction, from front, back and both sides.

"We've got to do something!" Lina said, though her words were stamped out over the noise. She pointed frantically at the green man, and the other two understood the message anyway.

"What, again?" Once again, Melanie's voice was drowned out, but subconsciously, she had already looking for anything that could help the green man.

"Hey guys! Over here! Help me with this!"

Seraine was bending over the fallen log, which had actually been a leg of a fallen watch tower. Her fingers were already curved on the underside of the log, lifting it off the ground in a slight angle. Lina and Melanie quickly followed her example, lining themselves up along the wooden pole, Seraine in the middle with Lina and Melanie on either ends. With their combined strength, picking up the pole became an easy task, and with the target clearly in their view, it wasn't long before all three girls were running at the small crowd surrounding the horse and the green man. When they were no more than a few metres away from their aim, Lina, who had been on the end of the pole, tripped over a jutting root of a dead tree and fell head-first. The force of her fall pushed the pole with more force than expected, and with two of the girls still running, the pole somehow shot out of their hands, launching itself at the blue crowd, the green man and the horse.

Surprised by the unexpected fall of Lina, Seraine tripped over her own feet, while Melanie lost balance slightly, but didn't fall. It didn't take long for Lina to catch up to them and for Seraine to pick herself up, and together, the three girls watched another collision that happened due to their clumsy, yet well-meaning actions.

The pole, which made before been airborne, was now lowering towards the ground, almost skimming across the dust and dirt. It crashed straight into the cluster of feet of the blurred crowd that surrounded the green man, knocking down every single one of them. The impact, however, ended up being more than they bargained for, as the force also affected the green man's horse, causing the horse to lose its balance and fall along with the other blue men, straight onto the blue soldiers on its other side. Once again, pure luck cause triumph, as the green man seemed to make it out relatively unharmed, though the horse was rapidly losing life.

Using his spear for leverage, the green man hefted the bodies that fell on him, spearing anything blue that moved. His eyes then caught contact with the three girls standing huddled together, watching his every movement. Slowly, ignoring pain that was throbbing in his left leg, he picked his way out of the human rubble and made his way to the girls, who were dressed extremely oddly and utterly inadequate for the battlefield.

When he finally reached them, he saw that they could have been no older than that of seventeen years, and a frown appeared on his face.

Quickly analysing his facial expression, Melanie made a very correct guess that she and her cousins were not, in any way, suppose to have been out on the battlefield. She tugged softly at her cousins' pyjamas' sleeves, but they were quickly wrenched out her grasp.

"What are three girls like you doing out here?" the green man asked, frown still very obvious on his face. "It's dangerous here; you had better get away quickly and head straight home."

"But we have nowhere to call home," Seraine said. "At least, not here."

Melanie saw as confusion passed through the man's eyes, and she knew that she had seen him somewhere before, though she couldn't recall a name.

"Please, Jiang Wei, couldn't you take us back to the Shu camp, just until we figure out a way to return to out home?" Seraine gave her best wounded-puppy look, something that she used whenever she needed an extension from the teacher for her homework.

The man, apparently called Jiang Wei, gave a start. "You know me?"

How was she, Seraine of the twenty-first century, suppose to explain that he, who thought he was Jiang Wei, was actually a modelled remake of the real, human Jiang Wei who had died over a thousand years ago?

"…Um, you're quite well-known from where I come from," Seraine stated, doing her best to sound convincing.

There was a few more seconds of silence as Jiang Wei considered his options.

"I shall take you back to the Prime Minister with me," he said finally, figuring that his mentor would know what to do with the girls. "Come, we must move quickly."

Seraine nodded as Lina patted her on the back. The girls trailed a steady pace after Jiang Wei, who still confused over what the girl he had spoken to said about not having a place to call home, as well as their strange clothing. He had never seen anything of the like before.

Meanwhile, Lina, Seraine and Melanie had just realised that they weren't wearing any shoes, and that their feet were beginning to hurt; a lot. They were being much more careful with where they stepped, while trying to keep Jiang Wei's back within their sight.

"So tell me, who's Jiang Wei?" Melanie puffed out, as she sidestepped to avoid treading on what looked a puddle of blood.

"You don't know?"

"Have many times would you have to ask me that?" Melanie threw an exasperated look over at Lina, who had voiced the question. "I'm not into this sort of thing, remember?"

"Well, you'll have to get into now," Seraine said. "You're a part of it."

"Oh, hooray."

"Don't sound so down, Mel. We're going to the Shu camp!" Lina's eyes flashed with happiness at the thought.

"…Whatever. So, tell me, who's Jiang Wei?"

"Oh, he's Zhuge Liang's student." Seraine finally offered information.

"Is that the same 'Zhuge Liang' who you were talking about being in a closet with that 'Sima Yi' guy?"

"Yeah, that's him."

"Is he a good guy?"

"Jiang Wei or Zhuge Liang?"

"Both."

"Depends on how you look at him," Lina butted in, always happy to be part of the conversation. "There are a bunch of different opinions out there; you'll have to make your own."

"Oh. Then who's the 'Prime Minister' dude that Jiang Wei was talking about? I thought that this period of China was full of emperors and stuff."

"He's not talking about, like Presidents and Prime Ministers and stuff. The 'Prime Minister' is Zhuge Liang, though I don't know why he's the 'Prime Minister'."

Melanie looked back to Jiang Wei, whose brown ponytail was bobbing as he ran/power-walked. Another thought occurred to her.

"Hey?"

"Yeah?" Seraine answered her call.

"These guys are meant to be Chinese right?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, so why are they speaking English?"

At this, Seraine fell silent, but it seemed that Lina had the answer.

"Probably because this is actually the game; it's not like we went back into time or anything. Since we were playing the English version of the game when we went into the TV, I'm guessing that they're going to be speaking English, which is really lucky for us."

"Well, that makes sense."

As they entered the side of the battlefield that was controlled by the Shu Army, the three girls felt themselves quiet down, jostling in between people who ran back and forth, carrying supplies and weapons and messengers could be seen scrambling to make their way over to whoever it was they needed to see. It was a madhouse of noises; tramping feet flying over the ground, the whinny of horses, hoarse voices shouting orders followed by choruses of replies, screams of pain erupting from medical tents and in the distance, the constant ring of metal could be heard as clearly as a glass bell.

Jiang Wei led the girls to the entrance of what appeared to be the largest tent in the area. The silhouettes of arguing men were sharp against the light that emitted from a candle, and the muffled voices appeared loud and aggressive.

"Let me do the talking," Jiang Wei said, before flipping back the entrance and ushering the girls inside.

--  
**Chapter 2: End**  
--

**A/N: **Hi again! Reaching the end of Ch:2, I know that not much is happening yet, but please continue to keep a lookout for the next update!! I KNOW it won't take as long as this update did, and thanks once again to the people who gave their support for the first chapter. And, like everyone says, **REVIEW WHEN YOU CAN !!**I'm sorry that I haven't had anyone beta this chapter for me, but Anna is coming down tomorrowz (I think) and maybe she'll beta for me. So, if you see any mistakes, don't hesitate to tell me! Constructive criticism always appreciated.

Bye for now!! -skips off to go write next chapter, but is distracted by looking at the summaries of other fanfictions-


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **Don't worry, Miss Acid Pops. All the DW characters will have their moment in the spotlight eventually; Zhang He no exception.

...Yeahs, as a reply to Suuki, I realise that there isn't really much to keep this story from collapsing totally, so there are probably going to be a lot more random and useless chapters. I have a vague idea of what I want to incorporate into this story, but that's it, and any character development or anything will probably be written on accident. I hate OCs, so I'm actually really annoyed with these girls. XD I wonder how long before I can ditch them.

To donutgirl and storyreader, thanks for the reviews. It gave me a lot of initiative to write this chapter (not that I actually put any of it to use. You can blame +3r!N and Cindy for this chapter) and I'm glad that you enjoyed it.

Sorry Cindy, for deleting your review, but it was just taking up too much space. Did you have to press enter so many times? And seriously, if you want to comment on my story, just call me. We're family man, it's not like we DON'T see each other every other week. Next time, try and keep it short (meaning no giantic spaces!). And dude, you could have just told me what you thought of it - you were sitting right next to me when you wrote that weirdo review of yours.

Thanks again for the reviews guys! Here's another useless chapter, which isn't really funny at all. If you want the basic summary, it's just really boring conversation. I haven't properly looked over this yet, so if you notice some mistakes, please bear with. I'll get someone to beta it eventually (stares accusing at Erin ((I'm sick of remembering her nickname)) who's too busy drawing to even notice).

--  
**Chapter 3**  
--

The inside of the tent was completely bare, other than a low table that stood in the centre, covered almost entirely with a large map. Huddled around the table were three men, right in the middle of a heated discussion. One was seated on the left side of the table, one on the right and one at the head.  
The person at the head of the table looked to be the most imposing of the three, dressed meticulously in long-sleeved robes of white, embroidered with green and decorated with the symbol of yin and yang. The person had long sweeping hair, topped at the head with a golden rectangular hat of some sort. His facial hair consisted of a thin, pointed beard and a trimmed moustache, and along with his cunning eyes; he didn't look like someone to be messed with. In his hand, he held a white, feathered fan, which he continuously lifted up and down in a slow, calm motion.  
The two men on either side of him, funnily enough, appeared to be twins, looking exactly the same as the other. Their features were rather boring, despite the comedy of both being the mirror image of the other, clothing, weapon and all. A heavy metal helmet framed a rough face with featured a thick moustache. It was the only thing that the girls bothered to pay attention to.

The voices inside the tent were scrambled, echoing mainly with the voices of the twins, while the white-dressed man looked on with a comical expression. As Melanie, Lina and Seraine shuffled inside and Jiang Wei closed the flap of the tent behind them, the white-and-green man straightened his back and assumed a more professional stance.

"Jiang Wei," he began, but stopped when he noticed the three girls. "Who are they?"

Jiang Wei opened his mouth to answer but was quickly cut off by the pair of voices coming from the twins.

"General Jiang Wei! How has the battle progressed? Has the battle turned into our favour?"

"The supply line has been secured, but the Wei Army has surprise our troops with an ambush. We're unsure of what our next move should be and-"

"Liao Hua! Guan Xing!"

Liao Hua and Guan Xing immediately quieted as their names were called.

"Please leave," the white man continued, voice and face completely devoid of any emotion. "I have business that I need to discuss with Jiang Wei," his eyes lingered on the girls, "and our unexpected guests."

The twins looked dejected at being brushed off so quickly, visually dealing with internal frustrations about the battle. The white man cleared his throat audibly, and Liao Hua and Guan Xing had no more reason to remain within the tent. They stomped out with loud, crashing steps – no doubt a small revenge intended at the white man. The white man just continued fanning himself like nothing had ever happened.

Melanie nudged Lina softly, as she couldn't reach Seraine who was on the other side of Lina.

"So, who's this?" she whispered, obviously referring to the white man.

"That's Zhuge Liang," Lina answered back hurriedly, her voice hushed.

Melanie stared. So _this_ was Zhuge Liang – Jiang Wei's mentor or tutor or something, if she could remember the information correctly, and supposedly a 'Prime Minister' of something.

"Prime Minister," Jiang Wei said, as he bent forward in a formal bow.

Well, Jiang Wei referred to him as 'Prime Minister'. Maybe she should too?

"These three girls were out on the battlefield," Jiang Wei gestured a hand at them. "They have yet to explain to me exactly what they were doing out there, but they mentioned that they have no home. I was unsure of what to do, and so I brought them here."

Jiang Wei's recount of what had occurred was short and simple, with a slight air of impatience.

A few minutes passed where everyone took turns examining one other, with Zhuge Liang eyeing the girls one by one. It resembled the atmosphere of a student being called by a teacher, just before the student was sure that they were about to receive detention. The same kind of atmosphere where the teacher looked at the student heavily, just waiting for the student to reveal that, yes, he or she was the one who had dunked the principal's expensive Prada shoes into the men's toilets. That was the kind of ambience that Lina, Seraine and Melanie felt that they were in.

All three girls wanted to say something and put their opinions forth, but they remembered Jiang Wei's warning and heeded it, as much as they disliked it. It was only a few more seconds of stifling silence before Zhuge Liang spoke out.

"So, you have not told Jiang Wei the reason that you were out on the battlefield?"

'What?' That was the question that Melanie asked herself. He had spent all that time looking at them, only to decide on a question like that?

"He didn't ask, so we did not provide an answer to such a question," Lina quickly stated, sounding confident as though she was practising a script for drama class.

"I see." Zhuge Liang flashed what looked to be a dangerous glare over at Jiang Wei, who averted his eyes. "Then I shall ask you now – what are three young girls such as yourself doing out on a battlefield?"

Melanie looked over at Lina, who was busy looking at Seraine for the answer.

"We, ourselves, are unsure up how we ended up here," Lina answered slowly, leaving sufficient space for the other two to interject at any time. "Our home is quite far away from here – not a place that anyone but my cousins and I would be familiar with. It is hard to explain, but you'll just have to take our words for truth…"

Lina left the sentence unfinished, daring to look Zhuge Liang straight in the eye. The seated man gave a small nod as an inclination for her to continue. Lina struggled for words. She really couldn't think a way to explain it – she didn't even know what _it_ was.

A magic light that transported Seraine, Melanie and herself into the game of Dynasty Warriors? A magic portal that turned fantasies into reality? A flash of magic that sent her and her cousins into a world of make believe based on real events?

Lina pondered silently on the repetitive word: 'magic'. There was something about it, something about it that appeared on so many different levels that she was sure that she was lost in its meaning.

The words that came from Melanie's mouth snapped her out of her daze.

"It is hard to explain," Melanie said, taking into the context the words that Lina had said. "It is most probably, something that we cannot explain. Believe us, however, when we say we want nothing more than we return home a.s.a.p."

Both Lina and Seraine gaped at her with faces resembling incredulousness. They most certainly _did not_ want to go home; at least, not before meeting all their favourite Dynasty Warriors hotties. Zhuge Liang and Jiang Wei just looked confused.

A.S.AP?

What on earth did that mean?

Catching the looks of the men, Seraine decided to add her part in.

"You own us that much," she said, perhaps a bit too happily. "We did save Jiang Wei's life, twice, I might add."

Zhuge Liang turned to his student.

"Is that true?"

Jiang Wei looked honestly bewildered.

"I…I'm not sure," he admitted.

"We were the one who accidentally threw your spear into that dude," Lina said, trying to be helpful. "Well, Melanie was, anyway. It was because we saw that blue dude push you down and get on top of you that Melanie chucked your spear. It was meant to hit the blue dude, but instead, it got caught in the green dude's leg and then a bunch of things happened and an arrow got shot into the dude who was holding you down."

Melanie mentally punched Lina for using terms like 'get on top' and 'holding down', while Seraine snickered softly, but the men were totally indifferent anyway.

"That was your doing?" Jiang Wei asked, as realisation dawned.

"Ya-huh," Seraine chirped in. "And we were the ones who threw that log at all the guys surrounding you and your horse. Umm…"

Seraine could still remember the look of the dying horse, but she didn't say anything. Even Melanie and Seraine didn't understand what was bothering her.

"Well, then, Jiang Wei, it seems that you own something to these girls," Zhuge Liang said, in a rather serious voice.

"Yes, Prime Minister."

Zhuge Liang turned back to two ecstatic girls and one dumbfounded girl.

"There are still many things that we need to discuss," Zhuge Liang said, speaking like a manager of a hosting show. "I must ask for own Lord's direction before any further agreement can come to hand. Please stay here until the battle ends and we are able to return back to Cheng Du. I feel that, for your arrival, the Heavens are going to grant me more time in order to witness what things will come to pass."

Another strangely intense aura filled the room within the tent as more silence followed before Zhuge Liang rose from his seat.

"Please excuse me. I am not certain of how much longer this war will continue for. I ask that you be patient for the time being."

He exited the tent with Jiang Wei tailing him from behind, completely missing the military salutes that both Lina and Seraine gave him.

The sounds of the war could be heard again as Jiang Wei followed after his mentor. There was one question that he had been burning to ask since talking to the girls.

"Umm… Prime Minister?"

"Yes, Jiang Wei?"

"What's a 'dude'?"

x-x-x-x-x

"Oh my God, this is so cool! We're going to the Shu Kingdom!"

Seraine jumped up and down happily as she spoke those words, oblivious to the sight of Melanie reaching over and slapping Lina on the head.

"Ouch!" Lina cried out and rubbed the hurt area. "What the hell was that for?"

Melanie stared imposingly.

"First of all – because you're the one who got us into this situation in the first place by jumping into the TV. How did you even think that you'd get here? And secondly – for using those words in front of that Zhuge Liang guy. He might be able to help us get home, and all you can think of are dirty, perverted thoughts?"

"What?" Lina pulled her best imitation of an innocent face. "I was thinking nothing of the like. And where exactly did I say anything perverted? I swear, you're the one that's turning dirty; twisting my words into something like that. You should be ashamed of yourself."

Melanie narrowed her eyes even further into an evil glare, while Lina smirked. Eventually, Seraine noticed the fake tension between the two and stepped in.

"Hello! We're going to the Shu Kingdom! Aren't you guys excited?" She waved one arm in the space between Lina and Melanie, right in front of their eyes.

Instantly, Lina started laughing at the stupidness of it all, not stopping until Seraine and Melanie began laughing alongside her, until all three girls fell in a messy heap onto the table. As the laughter subsided, the girls up-righted themselves and sat back-to-back.

"I can't believe how cute Jiang Wei looks," Seraine sighed dreamily. "He looks even cuter now than he did in the TV screen."

"Totally," Lina agreed. "Don't you reckon so, Melanie?"

"Meh, I'm not into animated characters," came the reply.

"So mean," Lina commented, smiling though the others couldn't see.

"Just wait til you see Lu Xun," Seraine added. "You'll fall head-over-heels 'cause he's so beautiful, but remember that he's mine! And Guan Ping's, and Jiang Wei's, and Gan Ning's…and maybe Lu Meng's?"

Melanie just rolled her eyes.

"Lu Xun? He's in Wu though, and we're going to Shu. And isn't Zhou Yu supposed to be the beautiful one?" Lina remarked.

"What's 'Wu'?" Melanie asked, before Seraine had a chance to comeback Lina's statement.

"Wu's another kingdom," Lina explained. "In this period, there are three main ones – Shu, Wu and Wei. Shu is green, Wu is red and Wei is blue. They're all fighting each other in order take control of the land."

"Oh." Melanie flicked her eyes over at Lina and Seraine, who were on her left and right, respectively. "Y'know, I think that you guys are gonna have to teach me about all this stuff. Just the basic information," Melanie added in hurriedly, as she turned around to see a sparkle of fire in Seraine's and Lina's eyes.

"No probs'," Seraine said, with a smile.

Melanie immediately felt suspicion rise within her.

"Seriously, it's not that hard to remember," Lina assured.

Melanie mentally prepared herself as an onslaught of 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms'/'Dynasty Warriors' information verbally attacked her.

x-x-x-x-x

He spun around in circles, his grip tight on his spear. The small horde of incoming Wei soldiers were quickly flung back and he created a path back to the borrowed steed. Jiang Wei leapt onto the horse's back and galloped swiftly into a group of blue man, scattering their V-shaped formation. His 'Blink' collided with a soldier's skull and he felt a few drops of blood warm his skin.

He used the back of his hand to wipe the red liquid away, only to have more splatter on him when he rode his horse past the sight of Wei Yan splitting the body of a gate captain in two.

"Kill…enemy…" Wei Yan murmured, just loud enough for Jiang Wei to hear as he rushed past.

Jiang Wei smiled at the prospect of eliminating the traitors of the Han, and urged his horse to run even faster. He still couldn't get his mind of the strangely dressed girls, their unusual language and, if it was true (and he couldn't really doubt that it was), the fact that they had saved his life twice in battle. Zhuge Liang had said that he now needed to make something up for them, but what?

He supposed that the first step would be making sure that they received proper care, in the hands of Shu no doubt. And if he needed to repay them back, did that mean that the girls would have to return with him back to the Shu capital and live with him and the other Generals?

Jiang Wei shook his head. He would worry about that afterwards. Right now, he had a certain Wei strategist to defeat.

x-x-x-x-x

Since Lina and Seraine were used to winning a battle within a twenty or thirty period time slot, when they ended up waiting for over forty minutes in the crowded-with-a-single-table tent, they became very restless.

"Would you sit still already?" Melanie cried in exasperation as Seraine poked her head out of the tent for about the millionth time.

"But this is taking too long!" Seraine complained, huffing outward as she did. "If I were controlling Jiang Wei, or anyone else for that matter, this battle would have been over already."

"Well, you're not controlling Jiang Wei, so sit down and shut up please!" Melanie emphasised on the 'not', making sure that Seraine caught the word.

Seraine pouted and plonked herself down next to Lina.

Luckily for Melanie's sanity, another fifteen minutes passed without any of them moving from their chosen spots, each with their own thoughts in mind.

Melanie was trying to concoct some sort of plan to get her cousins and herself back home into the 'real' world, but since she didn't understand how they even came to the Dynasty Warrior world in the first place, nothing came to mind.

Seraine was busy formatting an idea to reach the capital of Wu and meet her favourite character, Lu Xun. Or, 'Lun Xu', as she liked to call him, and herself when there was sufficient sugar in her blood levels.

Lina was staring blankly at the wall of the tent, trying to make out the images behind it. It looked like a supply base, with a mass of people constantly running in and out. At the same time, she repeated random song lyrics in her mind, the majority of them not understandable, since they weren't English songs. She had been too lazy to look up the translation for them.

Finally, the tent opened once more and a scrawny man in dusty green military clothing entered with a bow.

"Lord Zhuge Liang has requested your presence," he said quickly in a slightly high-pitched annoying voice. He backed away from the entrance and held the flap outwards from them.

The three cousins looked up at him blankly, still coming out of their reveries. One by one, the information sunk in and they looked at each other quizzically. As they caught the other's eye, they stood up mechanically and followed the messenger who directed them towards the middle of the front lines.

There, Zhuge Liang stood waiting; the feathered fan still in his hands, though he was no longer waving it. Many soldiers could be seen returning from the battlefield, some seriously wounded and others simply tired and exhausted. Ahead of them, leading them, was Jiang Wei, sitting atop a white-and-chestnut coloured horse.

"Is the battle over?" Melanie asked, once she was in Zhuge Liang's hearing distance.

"Yes," he said simply.

"Did Shu win?" Seraine questioned, taking the last few steps next to Melanie's side.

"Neither side was truly victorious," Zhuge Liang answered neutrally. He didn't bother to explain, which was just as well when Jiang Wei approached them.

The Shu prodigy clambered off the horse, handing the reins to some random soldier to lead away. He bowed low in front of his teacher and began a swift oral report on what had taken place in the last stages of the battle. He explained that, once he had forced open the garrisons of the Wei bases, the Wei Generals began to flee, though it was an elaborate setup that had cost the charging Shu infantry over a quarter of their men. There had been a rockslide planned, a decisive action that not only allowed time for the Wei Army to escape, but also to ensure to the Shu Army that their enemies would be back and ready to bite.

The three girls listened in on all the information, and it wasn't until Jiang Wei had finished with his report that he had even noticed their presence. Not that the girls cared, anyhow.

Melanie was preoccupied with being horrified. What if, through some stupid action taken by Lina or Seraine, they had been caught up the rockslide?

Lina and Seraine were too busy being amazed by the Wei tactics to even give a thought about what could have happened if Jiang Wei hadn't taken them straight to the Shu camp.

"It seems now," Zhuge Liang said in a low whisper, directed entirely at Jiang Wei. "That the main problem we need to solve is what to do with these girls."

Jiang Wei didn't need names to know whom Zhuge Liang was referring to.

"If it can be done, Prime Minister, I think that the best course of action would be to take them back home with us. I, personally, will keep them under my wing and out of trouble, until we can take them back home to…wherever it is they come from." Jiang Wei spoke these words with conclusiveness, hoping that the small swell of disquiet in his chest couldn't be heard through his voice.

Zhuge Liang nodded understandingly, turning back to the girls who were looking slightly confused.

"Do you know how to ride on a horse?" he queried.

"We've all been to a country camp as part of our school component," Seraine nodded.

Jiang Wei wasn't too sure on what a 'country camp' was, but from the words, he did have a vague idea.

"Good, then…" Zhuge Liang let loose a small chuckle, shying away his face behind his white fan. "How rude of me; we've yet to give formal introductions. I am Zhuge Liang, style name, Kongming. I believe that you are already familiar with my student, Jiang Wei, style name, Boyue."

Melanie made a mental note to ask Seraine and Lina about style names. She supposed though, that it wasn't much different to when an artist chose a stage name, instead of using their real name.

"And you are?"

"I'm Seraine, and these are my cousins." Seraine pointed her hand to indicate Lina and Melanie.

"I'm Lina." Lina smiled, considering whether or not to offer her hand, but deciding not to in the end.

"I'm Melanie. Thanks for taking care of us."

Jiang Wei barely realised that he was staring. First, it had been strange clothing, then their spoken language had shown strange speech patterns and words he didn't understand, and now, such strange names to be born to.

He tried pronouncing the names in his head.

Li-na; well, that was easy.

Se-Yi-Re-Yin; was that what she had said?

Mei-lan-ni; it seemed correct enough.

"Its all I can offer back in return for saving my life," Jiang Wei said formally, doing his best not to just stand there, gawking at them and remember his manners. Perhaps he was being too formal?  
"Well, Li Na, Se Yi Re Yin, Mei Lan Ni," he did his best for proper pronunciation of the foreign names, completely misunderstanding that 'Lina', 'Seraine' and 'Melanie' were all actually one name, not a set of names, "we have a long march before we reach our destination at Cheng Du. It will be easier for you to ride instead of walking with the men. You should rest now; I'll send a messenger for you at daybreak."

'Did he just call me 'may-lan-ni'?' Melanie wondered.

'Wait, what did he call me?' Seraine asked in her mind.

Well, at least Lina didn't have a problem.

"Come, I'll take you back to the tent."

The girls followed their senior, who wasn't that much older than them, if they were considering the default ages set by Koei. They failed to realise that Zhuge Liang had disappeared somewhere in the midst of their conversation.

"Um… Jiang Wei?"

"Yes," it only took a few seconds before he remembered the introduction that had taken place only a few seconds ago. "Li Na?"

"Do you have any shoes for us to borrow? We don't have any, and I think I speak for Melanie, Seraine and myself when I say that our feet hurt."

Jiang Wei mentally sighed. Perhaps this was going to be harder than he originally thought.

"Umm… I don't think that anyone has brought spare shoes with them, but I'll go and see what I can find," he answered, as he took the girls around to his personal tent, which wasn't really personal at all. "There's only one bed, but we'll be leaving tomorrow anyway so you'll only have to endure it for one night."

There was only one bed; a thin palliasse along with a flat pillow and plain sheets. Aside from the bed, a hand woven duffel bag sat in the corner of the tent, half-secured. Clothing could be seen spilling out from its contents.

"Where will you be sleeping then?" Melanie asked, always one to put her wellbeing before others.

"I'll be helping oversee the men and pack away the camp so that we can start moving," he explained. "We'll need most of the night to unfold most of the tents and saddle the horses, since there are many that need to be put away. Don't concern yourself with it. Sleep now."

He gave them a half smile before walking out of the tent.

x-x-x-x-x

"Well, it's a good thing we were wearing our pyjamas then, huh?" Seraine commented, looking down at her mismatched Winnie the Pooh nightshirt and black sweatpants, which she used for sleeping.

"Eh," Lina replied vaguely, sitting on one end of the make-shift bed. She was wearing blue-and-white vertically stripped pyjama pants and a white cotton T-shirt that hung just passed her butt over a dark blue skivvy shirt.

Melanie was the only one wearing matching top and bottom clothing; a soft violet nightdress with a jacket of the same colour. The outfit had been brought as a set.

"Well, you heard the man," Melanie said, staring down her younger cousins. "Go to sleep."

It was far easier said than done. By the time Melanie's body forced her into dreamland, Lina and Seraine were still chatting away, completely unaware of the moon's slow disappearance until the sun became the pinnacle of the sky.

x-x-x-x-x

The night had passed too quickly for Melanie's liking, as she needed a daily average of eight hours sleep. True to his word, Jiang Wei walked into the tent with the intention of waking what he thought would be sleeping girls. Instead, he found the two younger girls awake, sitting on the end of the bed while the eldest girl was fast asleep.

"Is it time to leave?" Lina asked, turning to face him.

She and Seraine hadn't been talking about anything significant; just normal things like why Sun Ce and Zhou Yu made the best couple from Dynasty Warriors, or why Lu Xun was the most beautiful out of everyone and they had both come to agreement that Zhuge Liang had been looking rather suspiciously at his student. Obviously it meant that the Zhuge Liang had a 'thing', as the girls called it, for Jiang Wei in their over-active minds. It was too bad that they had already condemned the Sleeping Dragon to a fate which included being locked in a closet with Sima Yi.

Jiang Wei nodded, completely unsuspecting of the yaoi plans formulating in the two girls' minds.

It wasn't long before they had Melanie up and grumbling about lack of sleep. There had only been one more horse available for the girls to ride on; an average size black mare which was known for its faithfulness to its master.

Lina and Seraine had decided to ride on its back, glad that it was such a gentle creature, though it didn't stop Seraine from fearing it. Seraine was known to have a bad past concerning animals, having been bitten by a dog, kicked off by a horse, stung by a bee, scratched by a cat, stared down at by a snake, finding two live rats in her bunk bed in grade six school camp, crawled on by bull ants and accidentally peeing on a large, furry spider while on a hike during her country camp. Yes, Seraine did not like animals.

Melanie ended up with the pleasure of riding on the back of Jiang Wei's horse, who really was doing his best to look after the girls, making sure that they didn't stray too far from that group. Eventually, Melanie ended up sleeping against Jiang Wei's back, despite the songs that chorused from the vocal chords of the rowdy army, happy to be returning home. Lina and Seraine did their best to learn the lyrics, joining in with the singing crowd.

x-x-x-x-x

The journey back to Cheng Du flew by in mere specks of time, the length of the journey forgotten by the time the Shu capital came into view. There was a celebratory cheer from the citizens of Cheng Du, most of which quickly rushing forward to help carry equipment from the soldiers. Weapons and horses were quickly stashed away, with soldiers being given the choice to either return home or stay from a party which was to be held in within the oncoming weeks.

By the time Jiang Wei lead the girls over the castle, the dust that had risen from the stampede of steps had calmed down, though excited voices and screams of delight from family and friends filled the air.

Zhuge Liang was waiting for them at the top of the steps of the main entrance of the castle, the fan (which was becoming rather annoying) still in his hand.

"I have already informed our Lord about our visitors," Zhuge Liang directed at Jiang Wei, once he had climbed the final step. "A meeting with all of the Generals to discuss what to do with them will be held later on in the evening. I believe that you should prepare yourself with an argument, though I don't think you need me to tell you that."

There was a smile in his eyes as he spoke the words, and Jiang Wei promised to himself to live up to his mentor's expectations, even if it did mean becoming a full-time babysitter.

"Of course."

Jiang Wei beckoned the girls to come forward, since they had been held back by Melanie who had deemed it impolite to listen to other peoples' conversations. The girls followed after him, soon becoming lost in the maze of corridors of the Shu castle. Servants and maids filtered out of every corner, eyeing the girls though pleasantries and congratulations spilled from their mouths as they saw Jiang Wei.

Eventually, they entered Jiang Wei's room, since the Shu Prodigy did not yet know where to house them. He closed the door once they were inside, wary of peeking eyes.

"Umm… you may cleanse yourselves," he said, indicating to a door in the far right corner of the room. "I'm sure the water has already been prepared. I just need to go over a few things for an up-coming meeting with Lord Liu Bei. Take as long as you want."

"He sure needs to do a lot of things," Lina whispered to Seraine.

"I wonder when he finds time to sleep," Seraine whispered back.

'You should be the one to talk,' Melanie thought, closing the bathroom door behind her as she was the last one in.

The bathroom was a luxury that Melanie didn't know existed at the time. A large, circular bath stood square in the centre, raised to about one and a half metres of the floor. There was a small staircase that reached from the floor to the brim of the bathtub, allowing for easy access. A single shelf ran along the left, right and opposite wall, lined with candles. High above the shelf was a vertically barred window, near the ceiling.

Even Melanie had to admit that she was impressed. She began stripping off her clothes, turning away to face a wall. Lina and Seraine had done the same; Lina was standing in her underwear and was pulling off her skivvy shirt, her pants and outer T-shirt already on the floor, while Seraine was bare-chested and untying the ties on her pants. They walked into the bath and its warm waters one by one, all averting their eyes as each person stepped in. For a long while, it felt like heaven on earth.

x-x-x-x-x

Jiang Wei wasn't sure exactly when the meeting would start, which was why he was so anxious to get his arguments sounding convincing and whole. However, there was only one real argument that he could really think of – that these girls had saved his life twice and that he needed to give something back for that. But in his mind, his didn't doubt that his Lord would readily turn away someone who had lengthened the life span of his fellow Generals. Lord Liu Bei was much too kind hearted for something like that. He paced around his room, now wishing that he had gone to his office instead, which had an overview of the city. He wanted to, but didn't think it wise to leave the three girls in his room alone and unattended.

He still couldn't work them out. Everything about them just seemed so…abnormal. He grabbed his spear and sat on his bed, which was much more comfortable than the thin, old mattress he slept on during war campaigns. 'Blink' looked almost harmless from his view, and he thought about, possibly the thousands of lives he had ended, wounded and changed with his weapon. A knock from behind the bathroom door snapped he out of his memories.

The three girls walked back into the room, each with their hair occasionally dropping water onto the polished, wooden floor. They had all made some modifications to their previous outfits. Lina wasn't wearing her pants, but instead, her just-past-the-butt-long cotton white shirt with her skivvy tied around her hips. Seraine had rolled up the sleeves of her Winnie the Pooh shirt, and also the legs of her pants. Melanie was no longer wearing her jacket. Their clothes looked exceptionally crumpled next to their refreshed faces, Jiang Wei noticed.

Just then, another knock resounded, and an elderly maid opened the door of Jiang Wei's room. She took one look at the girls' clothing, and immediately misunderstood the concept.

"Lord Liu Bei requests your presence," she said in a monotone voice.

Jiang Wei nodded once and waved a hand to dismiss her.

"Do we come too?" Seraine asked, the legs of her rolled pants falling down as she took a step forward.

Jiang Wei thought about the idea for a moment.

"It might be a good idea," he decided at length. "But wait outside for me and don't come in unless I call you."

Lina, Melanie and Seraine gave their show of understanding and followed Jiang Wei through another maze of passageways, their bare feet silent next to Jiang Wei's thudding footwear.

Finally, they rounded a corner which was entirely deserted; save for two bodyguards holding pointed spears with swords in their belts. The guards nodded at Jiang Wei and stood by to let him pass, consequently allowing the girls to pass through on Jiang Wei's permission. One more turn of the corridor and they stood before a massive double door.

"Wait out here until I finish, okay?"

Jiang Wei received three more affirmative nods from the girls. Glad for their obedience, Jiang Wei pushed opened the door and walked confidently inside, leaving the three girls alone in the single torch-lit corridor.

--  
**Chapter 3: End  
**--

**A/N:** Well, there you go - another chapter of very useless stuff. I think this chapter was a little bit long - I'm trying to keep the chapters at roughly the same length, but it appears that I can't after all.  
I'd point you to the review button and make a very obvious gesture to tell you to press it, except I want to add in a random note.  
My friend, who does not have access to the Internet, had decided that she (I go to an all-girls school...grrr) wanted to read my fanfics. So, I printed out everything I had written so far (chappies 1-3) for her using the school library printers. And DAMMIT, the (scary) school librarian just HAD to be standing there waiting for something to print, didn't she!?  
"What are you printing out twenty pages for?" she had asked me. And I don't think she believed me when I said that I had written a story for English class. But seriously, the story that I had written for English class was 18 pages - two more won't make much of a difference, will it?

Well, just felt like telling a story. You'd had better be grateful Taryn!  
I'll stop wasting your time now. I'll try and update as fast as I can (this chapter got updated in the same month - YAYY!), but I don't think that it would be a good idea to be expecting anything. Sorry guys, but we've already started receiving mini-assignments and tests. And school interviews are almost here! NOO! I haven't prepared anything except the front cover for my portfolio! (We have to make portfolios of our work and gave presentations at P/T).  
...I'm off now. Please wait patiently for the next chappie! I'll do my best!

P.S. If anyone knows which countries have been influenced by anarchy or anything about anarchism in general, please give some help before 29/07/08.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **Hey yo guys! I'm so, so, so, so sorry for taking soo long to update. D: I've just had a bunch of things that I've been dealing with, including family problems that Shuwazi only knows of too well. Anyways, I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed the last chapter - I know I said that I wouldn't take so long, but school work and such really did get in the way. Sorry once again! Anyways, I'd like to pat you all on the pat for giving me enough momentum to keep writing this, and also Shuwazi and Taryn for giving me death threats about not getting the next chapter done... I hope that they're happy now... and you too!

Ohh! I forgot to mention that I've decided to use Yumii's advice on Seraine's name, when I first uploaded the chapter. Sorry guys! Credit to Seraine's name goes to Yumii. Thanks a bunch!

Anyways - here's the next part; nothing really happens in here either... "

**--  
Chapter 4  
--**

"Oh My God, did you see that?"

Lina turned to Seraine with shining eyes.

"I know!"

Seraine's eyes shined in return. Melanie, sick of looking blank, stared down at them with scrutinizing eyes.

"Would you mind explaining what it is this time that's got you so excited?"

Seraine and Lina looked at Melanie, giggling.

"That old lady at the door – what a pervert! Like Jiang Wei would ever look at us _that_ way!"

"I know! People these days!" Lina laughed, before rethinking her words. "Or, people during _this _time?" She frowned. "Whatever."

x-x-x-x-x

All Shu officers, or at least, the ones that had been styled for Dynasty Warriors 5, were already there when Jiang Wei stepped through the door, faintly hearing the laughter of the girls over something he could only guess about. Like always, Liu Bei sat at the head of the smooth, rectangular table with his sworn brothers on either side of him. The other Generals had stationed themselves at random along the table, leaving the end for Jiang Wei's personal sitting.

'They probably planned this beforehand,' Jiang Wei thought, shutting the door with a soft click, eliminating all sounds of the girls' giggles.

He was about to take his seat when Liu Bei held out a hand. Jiang Wei jumped slightly, fidgeting with his fingers. It was only then that he took note of who was sitting where.

Zhuge Liang and his wife, Huang Yue Ying were seated next to each other, right after Guan Yu who was on Liu Bei's right hand side. Pang Tong sat on the other side of Yue Ying, followed by Xing Cai. On Zhang Fei's side of the table, Huang Zhong, Wei Yan, Guan Ping, Ma Chao and Zhao Yun were all scattered along the table's length, all sitting in disarray compared to the straight backs of those sitting opposite to them. There was a wide gap between Zhang Fei and Wei Yan, a wider gap between Wei Yan and Huang Zhong and an even wider gap between Huang Zhong and Zhao Yun, Ma Chao and Guan Ping, respectively. Zhao Yun, Ma Chao and Guan Ping were sitting closely to each other, though Zhao Yun and Ma Chao were sitting even closer together, their chairs practically touching. Jiang Wei mentally cringed.

"Jiang Wei," Liu Bei addressed formally, still indicating with his hand for Jiang Wei to remain standing. "You understand what this meeting has been called for, correct?"

"Yes." The reply was swift.

Liu Bei gave a faint smile of encouragement, which would have been missed if the lighting of the room hadn't casted to many shadows, all in just the right places. "Then, please proceed with your account of the story. Zhuge Liang has already reiterated his version of the story."

Jiang Wei cast a quick glance over at his mentor, who professionally flicked his eyes in a different direction. No contact was made. The other Generals were still waiting for him.

"Of course." Jiang Wei breathed in and exhaled deeply, using the time to mentally prepare himself. Realising that he had no other opportunities or excuses to prolong his report; he recounted once again his meeting with the girls.

The Generals listened to him carefully, rolling over ideas in their heads and scanning the information as thoroughly as they could. It was a rather excruciating experience for the Shu Prodigy; it couldn't have spoken as such of a report, but nor was it similar to telling a story to a friend. He was aiming for a tone that appeared mature, yet relaxed; something he wasn't sure that he was quite pulling off. By the time he had finished his account of what had happened, several hands were in the air. Jiang Wei nodded at the first person his eyes landed on.

"What did you say their names were again?" Xing Cai questioned.

"Umm…" there was a soft shuffling of feet against carpet as he dug through his information on the girls. "I believe that the oldest is called Mei Lan Ni, the middle child named Li Na and the youngest named Se Yi Re Yin."

"They have a blood connection to each other?" This question came from Guan Yu.

There was a pause. "I am not entirely sure, but I do believe that there is a large possibility of that being the case." Jiang Wei made a mental note to ask the girls about that later. "I faintly recall Se Yi Re Yin mentioning that they lived together."

These comment roused another round of questions in concern to the girls' background. After the chatter died down, Jiang Wei explained as much as he could.

"They have told me that their home is not a place that we would be familiar with," he said, doing his best to remember the exact words that had been spoken. He realised that he, too, knew nothing of the girls' ancestry.  
"It would probably be a better idea to bring them in and question them directly," Yue Ying suggested. "Shall we call for a maid to bring them here?"

Jiang Wei shook his head. "No, it's fine. I brought them here as well, because I knew that there would be questions about them that I wouldn't be able to answer."

"Perfect." Liu Bei's voice quieted the table as they all looked over at their leader. "Please, bring them in."

Jiang Wei nodded, doing his best to move naturally to the door. Even though he hadn't really been standing for that long, the muscles in his legs were starting to cramp up, seemingly for no reason. Maybe it was some sort of omen telling him that he wasn't meant to bring in the girls. But what did that matter? His Lord had requested it of him, and he needed to obey. Jiang Wei could never forget the debt that he own to Shu, to Liu Bei, to Zhuge Liang.

As he placed his hand on the doorknob, he could hear the other Generals whispering to each other in low voices about his presentation. Admittedly, there were a lot of gaps left open, but that was understandable. Everyone in the room understood the important essence of time when it came to gathering knowledge about other people. Especially when that knowledge was to be collected without the use of torture.

He found the girls seated along the wall, Lina's head resting on Seraine's shoulder. For the first time since he had found them, they appeared to be silent, contemplative. That was, until they saw him again.

"What happened?" they asked immediately, jumping at him. "Are we allowed to stay in Shu?"

He held up his hands to quieten their repetitive questions, waiting until Melanie slapped the girls over the head in order to shut them up. Jiang Wei shot her a grateful, yet weary smile, one that she seemed to understand all too well.

"Lord Liu Bei has asked for your presence," he explained. "He has some questions he wishes to ask you, and I'll tell you now, you must answer them all truthfully. Do you understand?"

The girls nodded their heads again, having stopped paying attention after the mention of Liu Bei. At least, Seraine and Lina had stopped paying attention. Melanie stood slightly anxious. After all, this was 'Lord' Liu Bei – was he a good guy or a bad guy? Damn, maybe she should have payed more attention during Lina and Seraine's Dynasty Warriors ramblings. But, there was no time to remorse on that; Jiang Wei was already leading the girls into the room, Lina and Seraine a single step behind him. Melanie quickly picked up her pace.

When Jiang Wei came back, he noticed that the Generals had done nothing to make themselves appear more presentable in the face of their guests. For a fleeting second, he felt some form of indignation well up inside him; how dare they think of his guests as unimportant?

It didn't last long, however, disappearing the second Liu Bei rose slightly form his seat to get a better look at the girls, who, at that time, were subconsciously cowering behind Jiang Wei's back. With a somewhat hasty hand, he beckoned them out from behind his back, mentally sighing when Seraine would move no further then his side. In fact, she was clutching at his shirt, immovable. The legs and arms of her clothing were running back down, allowing even more creases to be seen.

Melanie was on his other side, standing close, but not touching, arms crossed as though supporting herself. She was looking at the Generals intently, as though trying to decide who would be able to support her and her cousins throughout this crazy adventure they had been pushed in.

Lina seemed to be the only daring one, standing in front of Jiang Wei. For a long while, she looked calculating at Liu Bei, who returned her intent gaze with an intentional gaze of his own.

Seconds of silence passed as the two appeared to have a battle of wills. Jiang Wei had absolutely no idea what was flying through Lina's head, wanting to know the reason for her sudden challenge to his Lord.

Finally, Lina's eyes flickered elsewhere, before she slinked back to Jiang Wei's side. All the Generals in the room could tell that Liu Bei was rather impressed with her anyway. More time passed.

"So, you are the girls that Jiang Wei ran into during the Battle of the Wu Zhang Plains?"

"Yeah – that's us."

It wasn't really that surprising to find that Lina had answered Liu Bei's question.

Liu Bei was rather taken aback by her rather blunt and rude statement, but he decided to let it slide.

"Perhaps you would like to tell us a little bit about yourselves, then," he said softly, almost in a cooing voice.

There was a small show of hesitation. "What do you already know?"

Liu Bei blinked once, before smiling.

"We," he spread his arms slightly to indicate to the Generals surrounding him, "understand that you are not native to this land. We know that you helped to save Jiang Wei's life, even if, in doing so, you maimed several of _our_ soldiers. We are given the impression that you three girls are related to each other in some way, and that your names come in the forms of 'Mei Lan Ni', 'Li Na' and 'Se Yi Re Yin'."

There was an awkward silence as the girls waited for him to continue, only to reason that that was the extent of Shu's knowledge about him. The lack of information was rather weak, and discomforting.

"That's not a lot," Seraine said, accidentally thinking aloud. She held a hand to her mouth after she had realised what she said.

"No, it isn't," Yue Ying agreed. Jiang Wei felt Seraine jump; she hadn't been expecting to receive a reply to her statement. "That's why we've brought you in here; so that we can learn more about you. For a start, you could tell us where you come from."

Another long period of silence; which Melanie was quickly becoming sick of.

"I doubt you'd believe us even if we told you," she said, unable to keep the acerbity out of her tone.

"Try us," Xing Cai challenged.

Melanie looked up in Xing Cai's direction, a slight sharpness to her eyes. An intense staring competition began, lasting even longer than what had occurred between Lina and Liu Bei. Both females looked at each other with unblinking eyes, daring the other to break the connection. Though unsure, Seraine stepped forward slightly, one hand still clutched around Jiang Wei's shirt. Her free hand moved forward, shaking softly towards Melanie, only for it to be slapped away spare seconds later. Melanie hadn't even looked away from Xing Cai, her hand striking out like lightening. Seraine recoiled immediately.

The staring competition continued; Zhang Fei became so uncomfortable that he let out a very loud, very fake cough. Melanie and Xing Cai whipped their faces around immediately, now glaring at him for interrupting them. Zhang Fei gave a weak laugh, saved when Zhuge Liang addressed the girls.

"Perhaps we can save the glares until later," he suggested, waving around his fan, which had somehow magically appeared in the room. "I'm sure that the other Generals are still interested to hear exactly where the girls come from and what they're doing here."

Melanie grunted – she found that it was becoming very annoying for her and her cousins to simply be called "girls".

"I'm not explaining," she mumbled, just loud enough for everyone to hear. She turned over to Lina. "You explain – you got us into this mess in the first place."

Lina's eyes widened.

"Just how do you expect me to explain something like that?" she asked, looking at her older cousin with accusing eyes.

"I don't care," Melanie stated. "Say whatever you want; I doubt that it matters much now."

"Actually," Yue Ying interrupted. "It matters a lot. We want to hear the truth from you, and don't think that you can play games with us."

There was silence as the girls considered their options. Lina released a sigh of exasperation.

"Fine, you want the truth – we'll give it to you, but there's no way you're going to believe us."

"Try us," Xing Cai repeated again. Melanie threw her another dirty look, which was completely ignored.

"We're from the future," Lina said bluntly. Noticing that several mouths were opening, she quickly continued on before she could be interrupted. "Just shut up and let me finish." Here, she took a deep breath, waiting to make sure that no one was going to say anything. "Good. Now, seriously not kidding, we're not from your time. Hell, we're not even from your country. Now, you don't need to know where we're from, not yet anyway. Basically," she strained for words, "basically… we came here totally by accident. We don't even know how we got here in the first place, but there's not really anything that we can do about it." She casted a furtive glance around the room, unsure if that was perhaps, a little too much information. "You don't believe me," she declared. She turned to face Melanie, changing her voice into a low whisper. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"I've got no idea," Melanie replied.

The Generals at the table looked at each other in confusion. The future? The girls were from the future? There was no possibly way… was there?

"I thought that we told you that we'd accept nothing but the truth," Xing Cai said, looking over at the girls in disdain.

"Crazy hooters," Huang Zhong mumbled.

'Senility,' Lina mouthed to Seraine, who looked puzzled for a moment, before catching on and stifling her giggles. Even Guan Ping, who saw what happened, was snickering softly behind his hand. Ma Chao, who was sitting next to Guan Ping, looked over at him questioningly. Guan Ping waved a dismissing hand, before turning back to the girls and flashing an encouraging smile.

'Ooh – another friend,' Seraine thought. 'The guys in Shu sure are nice.'

Jiang Wei felt the change in Seraine as she became less tense and loosened up her body, moving slightly away from him to stand a bit closer to Guan Ping. However, her hand was still hanging onto his shirt, as though she was afraid of moving too far away from him. Lina sighed, before continuing on with her explanation.

"Okay, so it's a bit obvious that you don't believe a word of my explanation, right?" she asked, cocking her head to the side.

"Well, you have to admit that the idea is quite preposterous," Liu Bei confessed, eyes shifting over to Zhuge Liang, looking as though he was trying to double-check if time-travel was really as crazy as it sounded.

"Well, what do you what us to do about it?" Melanie demanded to know. "We can only tell you what we know."

"And how much do you know that you aren't telling us?" Xing Cai countered.

It didn't take much to the imagination for Lina to start seeing a dark purple aura fill the room, surrounding Xing Cai and Melanie, with an electric blue blot of lightening connecting them, a raging fire burning in their eyes. Just like in the hundreds of animes that she and Seraine watched during their spare time. It was actually quite a funny imagery, and she was surprised to find herself laughing out loud until all the eyes of everyone in the room was staring at her strangely.

"Umm… sorry," she said after her laughing had subsided, not the least bit embarrassed. "So, does everyone get the situation?"

There were blank looks from everyone.

"What situation?"

"Umm, wasn't the situation that you wanted to know about where we came from, but we didn't want you to know because we thought that you would think that we were crazy?" Lina tried to simplify everyone's understanding.

"You sure you aren't crazy?" Xing Cai asked, blatantly expressing her doubt over everything.

Melanie lost it.

"Fricking hell, woman! Seriously, what do you have against us? We haven't even been here for more than an hour!"

Xing Cai's eyes glared at Melanie for a split second, before she slammed her hands down onto the table, sending negative vibes to everyone in the room.

"In case you haven't noticed, we're in the middle of a war. Don't you think that it's a bit odd for Jiang Wei to find three girls like you in the middle of a warzone? For all we know, you could be spies sent by Wei in order in infiltrate us and find our weak points! And, for your information, my name is Xing Cai."

"But we're not spies!" Melanie interrupted, standing up to face Xing Cai. "If we were spies, do you seriously think that we'd be here trying to get you to understand that we want to go home?"

"Well, actually," Lina started, eyes flickering over to where Ma Chao, Zhao Yun and Guan Ping sat. "We don't really want to leave too ear-"

"Do you think that we'll fall a trick like that? You could be anyone; any claim you make could be truthful or deceitful – give me one reason why I should even think about trusting you!"

"What else is there for you to do?" Melanie almost shouted out, the folds of her violet dress trembling softly as she worked to restrain her anger. Melanie wasn't known in school for having an easy temper. In fact, Melanie had once been sent to the principal's office for accidentally-on-purpose placing all of her English teacher's paperwork in the school shredder, feigning that she had believed it to only be scrap. Aside from that small dent in her school records, Melanie's school report had been all clean, a large comparison to Lina and Seraine.

Liu Bei looked worriedly between Xing Cai and Mei Lan Ni, as she had been introduced. Xing Cai was normally a very polite and sweet girl; he couldn't think up any reason for her to suddenly act so hostile to their guests.

"Umm… Now, ladies, that could barely be considered conductible behaviour, can it?"

Liu Bei had never been more thankful for his Master Strategist.

"Really, if this conversation would proceed anywhere, I suppose that it would be most appropriate to call an end to this session," Zhuge Liang continued on. "Anyhow, I think that many of the people in this room have been far too distracted to continue on with this meeting." He made a very obvious gesture to Huang Zhong and Zhang Fei, who were quietly drifting off to sleep, their heads lolling in the cupped hands. His eyes then flicked over to Guan Yu, who, rather embarrassed, stopped inspecting the tip of his beard for split ends. "I think that it would be in everyone's best interests if we were to organise another meeting for a later session. Until then, you three girls," his feathered fan traced an invisible line over Melanie, Lina and Seraine, "will simply have to deal with staying in Shu."

Lina and Seraine almost jumped for joy at hearing those words, before calming down with soft fangirl squeals.

"Yue Ying, my wife," Lina's eyes suddenly cringed as Zhuge Liang spoke the possessive word, "are there any free rooms for these girls to stay in? And perhaps you could find them new clothing too; what they are wearing right now makes them stand out very much."

"Of course, my dear," Yue Ying answered, reaching out to touch her husband's hand tenderly.

Lina wanted to gag.

"My Lord," Zhuge Liang suddenly turned to face Liu Bei, "do you have any arguments against this?"

"No," came the merry answer. Liu Bei was just happy that the fighting had stopped. "Jiang Wei, will you still continue to care for them?"

"Of course, my Lord," Jiang Wei said, suddenly remembering that he wasn't just a spectator to the whole thing. "I'll do my best."

Liu Bei smiled softly.

"Everyone dismissed," he order.

Enthusiastically, the Generals began filing out of the room. Guan Ping smiled amicably at the girls again, before following Zhao Yun and Ma Chao out the door.

"Take good care of them," Liu Bei whispered to Jiang Wei, before he left. "Even if they are spies from another kingdom, we will demonstrate just how worthy and hospitalable Shu is."

Jiang Wei nodded an affirmative, though he highly doubted that the girls were spies in any way. It just didn't work out with them.

Finally, only he, Yue Ying and the girls remained in the room

"I plan on letting them stay in the room next to the eastern gardens," Yue Ying announced. "It's large enough for all three of them to occupy; I'll just have the maids set up the room. Plus, there's a washing room connected and the view is very beautiful, especially now, since the weather's so good. I doubt that they'd have any complaints. You can take them shopping for clothes tomorrow."

Jiang Wei almost did a double-take on hearing the word 'shopping'. True, he had the money, but… shopping?

"Couldn't you take them?" he protested weakly.

"You're taking care of them," she countered quickly, moving towards the door where the girls were waiting outside.

"But…" he blushed slightly. "I don't really know about _that_ kind of thing…"

Yuen Ying gave out a soft laugh.

"Don't worry," she reassured. "If they're anything like normal girls, they'll choose everything themselves. You're just paying for everything, though I suppose that that is a bit worrisome."

Jiang Wei wanted to protest again, over the fact that the girls probably weren't _that_ kind of normal, but he kept his mouth shut and only nodded instead.

Yue Ying smiled again, a mothering kind.

"Really, don't worry too much about it. I'll take them to their room now."

Jiang Wei watched her go, and decided that he'd better start counting his cash.

x-x-x-x-x

When Yue Ying finally left the girls alone to themselves, after showing them the washroom and waiting for the maids to set everything up, they all had to admit that the room was very beautiful indeed. Yue Ying hadn't been bragging about the view outside the window after all. The window was a perfect rectangle, cut out from the timber of the wall directly opposite to the door. It was bordered by a thin black line and, really, it was the highlight of the room. Nothing covered the window except for a soft, silky, almost transparent curtain, which were tied back to two hooks on either side of the window. Dark green leaves of the outside plants framed the inside border of the window, leading out to what was supposedly the eastern gardens. It was almost completely dominated a large pond, surrounded with lush grass until the window's frame cut off the rest of the scene. The pond appeared quite deep, the surface covered with lilies of varying shades of pink. Large golden red carps swam silently underneath the water, creating soft ripples as they moved. In the centre of the pond stood a circular pavilion, its viridian colour painted with smooth strokes. The curled roof of the pavilion was a slightly darker shade, outline with delicate markings of white. It was truly a sanctuary.

Staring out at the scenery, Melanie even forgot about the fight with the Xing Cai girl, until she was suddenly snapped out of her reverie. Lina and Seraine were squealing about something… she was scared to find out what.

"Did you see how close Zhao Yun was sitting to Ma Chao?" Lina was exclaiming loudly to Seraine, in a high-pitched voice.

"I know! I swear that I thought I saw Zhao Yun try to touch him!"

"You did?" Lina looked confused and disappointed. Seraine shrugged.

"Okay, maybe I was dreaming that one."

"Well, whatever." Lina brushed the topic away quickly. "We've got to get them together. They make one damn-ass sexy couple!"

The two somewhat crazy yaoi fans grinned insanely and high-fived each other.

"HELL YEAH!"

**--  
Chapter 4: End  
--**

**A/N:** So, what do you think? Am I getting anywhere? Lina's and Seraine's first victims have already been revealed! Lol :P  
Btw, when I mentioned the carp, you know the kind I mean, yeahs? The big, pretty ones that emperors used to have in their gigantic pond-garden thing... Yeahs, my brain is kind of dying at the moment... I BLAME YOU CINDY!! Quit calling me at 11pm!

Anyways, stick around for the next chapter! Please! It should be up pretty shortly... I just gotta finish off some English homework and then I'll continue on with this fic, though I should probably pay some attention to my other fic... Anyways, SCHOOL HOLIDAYS START IN TWO DAYS!! SO HAPPY!! :DD That's why I should be able to get another chappie up by next week. Well, hope you liked this chappie!! Ohh! And reviews! Please!!

And I'm just going to be random - ((Happy Birthday, Tora! - even though it was yesterday .)) Yes, I'm retarded like that, when you catch me at the right time... like now :D


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